Beginner Questions

[Sawhorse]

I have found this to be a great forum; I have learned more practical stuff here in just a couple hours than in several hours of book reading.  I started two hives April 16 of this year (just over two weeks old).  This is my first experience with bees.  Things seem to be going well, I have found the queen in both hives and have seen larva but I do have some concerns which require your help.  I have tried to post pictures but get an error message from this site stating that because of spam I cannot post a URL (picture) until I get more posts under my belt.  Therefore I will attempt to describe.  I have some larva with what appears to be brown around the edges (are these larva going bad?) and there are some cells with black particles that appear to be dried up larva…not sure….I have been moving the frames around trying to distribute the bees throughout the hive, maybe I shouldn’t have done that, any thoughts??

Question 2:  I have some comb being built from the top bar of the frame that is sitting off the foundation, sticking out further than the comb built on the foundation.  This excess comb is about 3 inches wide and about 4 inches…should I scrape this off or leave it alone??

Thanks for any help you guys can offer, having fun but find the more I learn about bees the less I know....Tom

[Brian D. Bray]

It's hard to tell but that might be pollen in with the eggs.  If so no big deal.
Let the bees distribute the eggs around the hive.  It is important for the viability of the brood to be together so the bees can feed and nurture them.  the bees will enlarge the brood nest as they need to.
Moving the brood frames around disrupts the brood nest forcing the bees to reconsolidate the eggs.  You're making extra work for them.  The pollen(?) in the cells maybe because the bees had to dig it out and  move it to get the eggs back together. 

The more you disrupt things within the hive the more its progress is hindered.  It is best to replace the frames in the same position you found them unless you have a very good reason for doing otherwise.

Also, cut off that piece of burr comb, it may cause problems later.

[Michael Bush]

Looks like chilled brood to me.

[Sawhorse]

Thanks for the help, I won't mess with moving the frames and cut off the burr comb.  You have been a great help.....Tom